Beantown blues.

Posted by: Casey Rae
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Posted date:
March 19, 2007 |
8 Comments

Gotta head into the office in a minute or two. It’s gonna be a fairly busy Monday. But I gotta get something off my chest.

I’ve always kinda despised the band Boston. My reasons are both simple and complex, as is the case with a lot of music that rubs me the wrong way. There’s definitely a love/hate aspect in this instance. I remember being 16 years old and almost buying [Boston guitarist] Tom Scholz‘ Rockman Distortion Generator (he actually designed it himself, which I still respect) because I thought he had cool tone. It must’ve been the weed.

On the other hand, Boston represented everything wrong about ’70s "corporate rock" that the punk movement rightfully sought to destroy. I don’t put the blame entirely on the band — it was more a case of tighter formatting for FM radio, and the realization that super-slick, three-minute rock cuts moved more units. Either by accident or design, Boston’s arrival coincided with the end of the era of free-form, WKRP-style broadcasting.

It’s tough for me to turn against a fellow studio geek like Scholz; part of me has great admiration for a guy willing to spend eight years on an album because he was disappointed with the sound of the last one. Especially considering said LP went double-platinum. But if I have to hear "More Than a Feeling" one more time, I’m gonna take a radio station hostage like in that movie.

So why did I choose today to bitch about Boston? Because lead singer Brad Delp died last week. Frankly, my chief concern upon learning the news was that I’d have to hear them on the radio every time I got in the car. Which is the only time I listen.

But there’s more to the story. Delp, 55, was by all accounts a really sweet guy. He just wasn’t cut out for the business. And that’s likely why he took his own life via carbon monoxide poisoning in a bathroom in his New Hampshire home.

On a brighter note, I started recording a metal-ish tune this weekend, and I’m getting married on Saturday. I guess it’s a Lion King cycle-of-life thing.

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About the author

Casey Rae
Casey Rae is the Chief Executive Officer of the Future of Music Coalition. He is also a musician, recording engineer, educator and author. Casey regularly speaks on issues such as emerging business models, creators' rights, technology policy and intellectual property at major conferences, universities and in the media. He has testified before Congress on artist rights and is committed to building bridges across sectors in order to identify possible solutions to common challenges. Casey has written dozens of articles on the impact of technology on the creative community in scholarly journals and other publications, and is a regular commentator on the impact of technology on creators in media outlets such as NPR, Washington Post, New York Times, Politico, Billboard, L.A. Times, Gizmodo, The Hill, Ars Technica, Sirius XM Radio and more. Casey is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University, and is the President of the Board of the National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture. He is the principal of Heru.us, a media, technology and policy consultancy. In his "spare time," he runs the DC-based label Lux Eterna Records and publishes The Contrarian Media.

You fool! No, congrats. I like the first two boston records myself. That shit got me a ton of mid-eighties action! Too bad about Brad Delp. Don’t wish that on anyone. Marrage on the other hand,…well let me look at my enemies list here……

casey

Oh Brad, you cad!

bigbad

Clever Boy! I like to think I was more of a Casanova than a Cad, Thank you. Or would that be a Casey-nova! Man, that’s just awful, sorry! This started with the sad story about a guy kiling himself, right? I feel like a cad, now.